Nightmares (2021)
The dark peaceful quite of the summer night was interrupted by his heavy breathing. Drakken felt the sticky sweat trying to fade away as he sat up in bed. His eyes burned with sleep and fear mingling to the pain in his chest and throat.
Another nightmare...
They'd been more frequent the last few days, keeping him tossing and turning... unrested and on edge to even try and sleep because they might come to him in sleep.
He was used to it though... because it had been a good day.
It was as if every happy moment he had, every blissful second ticked away... was building. Was building to all falling into a heap of pain and dissrupment. So the nightmares and the anxiety snuck in when he was most content. Late at night, after a good day in the lab, a wonderful evening with his family, and the feel of his wife beside him... when all was calm... the nightmares played with him like a twisted game of cat and mouse.
This dream wasn't the worst he'd had... not even close. In this one it was as if he'd messed up tomorrow and his good favor ended... he could live with that because in the end he still had the family he coveted so strongly.
No. It was the other dreams.
Dreams where they were so real and vivid he'd felt the pain hours after waking up... one's where all he loved had never been... where he had wasted his life away attempting to conquer the world while in reality it simply passed him by... then there were other's when he'd open his eyes and he was still on the Lawardian ship... and no one ever came.
These were sometime dusted with seeing those he cared for taken from him, his work erased, everything he'd dedicated his life to achieving... undid.
Sometimes he missed the nightmares that were simply small failures and memories of his past... those didn't threaten his present.
While the nightmares did their number, it also meant periodically for the next few days... every time he felt joy... he would be swallowed with anxiety and panic... panic that he was dreaming and he was about to wake to a nightmarish reality... or that for every smile across his face... ticked off a scale of balance... and his happiness was slowly weighing down his side of the scale before misery and failure came swirling upon him like an old worn coat.
A straight-jacket more like it.
Drakken knew it wasn't logical, but he'd never claimed to be a logical man.
He swallowed hard and let the last wave of his terror fade to simple heart palpitations and shaky breaths. Drakken looked at the clock, slightly cloudy through his mildly dampened eyes and he watched it turn over to four in the morning on June 6th. It was a small answer to his mindsets subconscious.
Fourteen years...
The day that became the tipping point in his life had been that long ago... and it still haunted him in its own twisted way. He slid back under the covers and looked to where Shego lay next to him, her eyes half open and a look of concern on her face. Drakken let the momentarily startle pass through him as he looked at her, waiting for her to ask or say something... but she didn't.
He acted on instinct as he moved closer towards her and wrap his arms around her... a part of him needing to make sure she was real and not another step in a nightmare coming. Her arms gripped around him tightly as if confirming his nonverbal request.
He felt ease finally come over him, fighting to concern that he'd had nightmares like this where he'd then suddenly wake up alone and broken... but her breath on his neck as she moved closer still, forced it away. He could hear words of comfort under her tired breath, but couldn't distinguish them... but he didn't need too.
She was there.
He knew that if tomorrow he fell from the graceful and hazardous success he'd finally managed... she would be there... and that was enough to keep the nightmares at bay as he finally drifted back to sleep.
A Small Dash of Insomnia